The number-crunchers at the Home Office have given us the list of the most-read posts at Hot Air over the past year, thanks to a little wizardry from the database geeks (of which I proudly count myself a member).  Over the next five days, I’ll roll out the list in blocks of 10 as we march through the rest of the year and link back to these posts.  That, of course, will make them even more widely read, but also will give us a chance to look back at some of these issues in perspective.

• #41 – Day 68: Why isn’t the A-Whale in the Gulf yet? – Two months after the Deepwater Horizon platform caught fire and the Macondo well started spewing 60,000 or more barrels a day of oil into the Gulf of Mexico, no one could come up with an answer as to why the Obama administration hadn’t responded to an offer of help from the Taiwanese company that built the largest open-water oil skimmer in the world.  In the end, its experimental technology didn’t work as planned — but it would have hardly hurt to have it try right from the beginning.

• #42: Video: New RINO-in-chief crowned – Combine Sarah Palin with Kate Gosselin, and you have traffic gold.  Gosselin’s petulant appearance on Sarah Palin’s Alaska gets the full Allahpundit treatment in this post from exactly two weeks ago, and is a must-read.  To emulate my partner — second look at Jon Gosselin?

• #43: Video: Letterman’s shocking interview with a tea-party leader – This one’s from March, and it foreshadowed the failure of the media to paint the Tea Party activists as loons and fringe characters.  Pam Stout looks like a kindly aunt, as Ace put it, and gave David Letterman’s audience a jolting lesson in media bias.

• #44: Paul Ryan to Obama: You realize your bill is a fiscal disaster, right? – To which the answer apparently was, “So what’s your point?”  As it turns out, not only was ObamaCare a fiscal disaster but also a political disaster … as most people realized by the time Obama held this ostentatious debate between opponents and supporters of ObamaCare in Congress.

• #45: Video: Greta vs Gloria – Greta van Susteren calls Gloria Allred “insane” and “delusional,” while Allred instructs van Susteren on how the Latino mind works.  Susteren ends up beating Allred into dust, especially on legal ethics.  A must-watch.

• #46: Bombshell: Democratic Senate candidate lied about serving in Vietnam – Who would have thought that a Senate candidate could lie about his combat record and still win election to the US Senate?   Or, arguably, two of them in the same year?  Most of us thought Dick Blumenthal was toast on May 17th.  Instead, he coasted.

• #47: Nuclear war: Megyn Kelly vs Kirsten Powers over Black Panther case – Again, another great roundup post from AP on the controversy introduces video that seems to have disappeared when I first researched the post.  I added the YouTube video so that you can relive the moment again, but don’t miss AP’s intro.

• #48: Video: The most painfully awkward debate moment of the year – What’s worse than making fun of the handicapped in a political debate?  Mimicking the handicapped to make your point.  Has to be seen to be believed.

• #49: Confirmed: Pretty much everyone offended by Vanity Fair hit piece on Palin – Allahpundit’s excellent and comprehensive roundup of criticism from across the political spectrum tells Vanity Fair readers what they need to know about the magazine’s credibility and fairness.  Also has Palin’s reaction on the Hannity radio show.

• #50: Video: Hecklers interrupt Obama’s speech for Coakley – Perhaps this January 17th post should have alerted the White House to the shocking loss of the Senate seat left vacant by the death of Ted Kennedy in the Massachusetts special election two days later.  Although Brown has voted occasionally with Democrats on specific issues such as DADT, he has also helped sustain Republican filibusters on issues such as the budget, forcing the defeat of the omnibus spending bill this month.

One fun fact from this list: #41 was the only post of this set of ten without audio or video in the post.

Tomorrow, I’ll round up posts 31-40!